Playing God
by Dark Spell
Summary: Though the blood, hair and breathing mask, she saw what she was dreading.
1. Silent as the Grave

**Disclaimer:** Don't own epitome, Degrassi or anything of that sort.

**A/N:** Another multi-chaptered story that will be picked up once I've at least made a dent in Fallen from Graceand Lost. Though this chapter is rather short, hopefullyit will intrigue you... If it does, feel free to review.

* * *

It was a frigid winter day, dry and bitter. Paige Michalchuk sat examining her nails, doing her best to hide the worried expression set on her face or continue crying, as she had been for the past few hours. Across from her, Jimmy Brookes was seated in his wheelchair, flipping furiously through an issue of Sports Illustrated, trying to focus on something as Craig Manning sat in a waiting room chair, staring stone faced at the floor, his arm around a familiar redhead. 

Paige looked up from her nails to Ellie, who was currently lightly dozing on Craig's shoulder, dark circles around her eyes from a mixture of eyeliner and lack of sleep. This was probably the first time Ellie had slept since the accident, nearly thirteen hours ago. Paige had been alerted six hours ago, by a frantic-sounding Craig. She'd arrived twenty minutes later to find the same three people already seated in the waiting room.

They'd remained that way ever since.

Paige sighed; she'd been in this situation before, when Jimmy had been shot. It wasn't pleasant returning to it. There were only two things a person could do in this situation, wait, and keep checking on the condition of the patient. Paige decided to pursue the second option again, so she got up and dragged herself over to the counter.

"Any change, at all?… Or any news on h-him?" She questioned, having to sputter out the remainder of the sentence.

The nurse shook her head, glancing up at Paige for a split second before continuing to fill out the paper work. As Paige turned around to head back to her seat, the nurse called out to her.

"We need to notify his parents, if you'll tell me his home phone number, I'd appreciate it."

Paige paused, mid-step and turned around.

"T-they're out of town for the weekend… I don't know exactly where they went, he said they went to visit some pregnant distant cousin." Paige managed to blurt out in response.

The nurse let out a disappointed sigh and returned to the form she was working on. Paige rolled her eyes and would have laughed at the nurse's pathetic attempt to be important, had the circumstances not been so serious. So she sat back down in the cheap wooden chair and stared at the scuffed and worn floor below.

"No change, I take it."

Paige looked up from the floor to find Craig staring back at her.

"None."She muttered, her eyes darting to the napping redhead leaning on Craig's shoulder. "Maybe when she wakes up, we'll find out exactly what happened."

Craig glanced over at Ellie and nodded.

"Hopefully. She hasn't spoken a word since he was brought here…" His voice trailed off, so that the only sound in the waiting room was the soft sound of Jimmy flipping the magazine pages, desperate for a distraction. And the sound of Ellie breathing softly, the memory of the incident replaying in her head as she dozed.

_Lights flashed. Lots of people hurried around in bright uniforms. Ellie sat on the curb of the street, blanket wrapped around her shoulders and a blank look in her eyes. Tears rolled down her cheeks as her eyes remained fixated on the scene being portrayed a few yards away._

_A team of men huddled around something in the grass, murmuring hurriedly under their breaths. After several moments, the sounds of squeaking wheels filled the air and the men stood up, pushing a trolley towards an ambulance parked in the middle of the numbers of police cars. As the men loaded the cloth-covered figure, Ellie caught a glance of the figure. Though the blood, hair and breathing mask, she saw what she was dreading._

_Marco._


	2. Sweet Dreams

**A/N: **I know I haven't updated in forever, but I'm getting back on track from school and everything else related to it and finals. This story and _Lost_ are going to be continued. So updates will be much more frequent. I may also be changing my pen name soon, so please be aware of that. Now on with the story...

* * *

_Ellie hovered over the small spot in the graveyard, her cheeks stained from the crying. She clasped her hands together tightly, on the verge of yet another round of tears. Then, suddenly, the small newly-buried grave fell through as hands reached up. They groped the air for something sturdy, grasping onto the firm grass. The arms push up, and a head emerged from the dirt, gasping for air._

_Ellie's mouth dropped. Marco looked up at her, fear evident in his expression. His hands reached for her as he began to sink back into the grave._

_"...E-el... H..help meeee..." He coughed, choking on his own words as he began to fall back down. Ellie darted forward, tripping over the grass in front of her. She reached her hands out to help him, but he had already sunk back down into the grave. _

_"MARCO!" Ellie screamed, tears flooding from her eyes as she lay on the ground. "...C-come back Marco... please.. Come back.."_

* * *

Ellie blinked, opening her eyes. The florescent hospital lights blinded her at first, but after a moment her eyes adjusted, leaving her slightly nervous from the

"Ellie, hun, I'm talking to you." Paige continued.

Ellie looked up from the tile to Paige. "Go to hell."

"What did you say to me?" Paige asked furiously.

"You heard me" Ellie muttered. "I said go to hell Paige." And with that, Ellie rose from her seat and sauntered out of the cramped waiting room, leaving behind a flabbergausted Craig and an angry Paige.

"What's her problem? All I did was ask her what happened."

"No, more like interrogated." Jimmy corrected, looking up from his magazine.

"I totally did not." Paige said in reply, shaking her head. "I just wanted to know what happened to Marco, I'm allowed to care, right?"

Craig sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Look Paige, Marco is Ellie's best friend... It's really rough for her, dealing with this... You need to just give her some space."

Paige let out a disgruntled sigh and shot Craig a glare.

Ellie walked through the icy hallways and entered the empty girl's washroom. Locking the door behind her, she leaned back against the door and slowly slid down to the floor. Her eyes grew watery as tears threatened to fall down her cheeks. Ellie brushed them away, her mind set on Marco. This couldn't be happening... Not to her best friend. He'd never done anything to deserve this.

As more tears began to form,Ellie reached down to her wrist and snapped feverishly at the rubber band on her wrist. It hurt, but not enough. She needed a release; the release cutting had brought her. But she had given it up, and replaced it with a pathetic rubber band.

Ellie pulled the rubber band back further and further, so that her wrist quickly became raw from the band.But it still wasn't enough.She pulled back again, as far as the band could go and let go of it. As soon as the band hit against her wrist, it snapped. With nothing left to help her take her mind off of what was going on, the tears welled up in her eyes finally began to fall. And Ellie, for the first time since the night before, broke down and cried.


End file.
